Live coverage from the Falkland's service, attended by veterans and currently-serving British soldiers, was sent via satellite and simultaneously fed into live coverage of a corollary service taking place at the Horse Guards venue in London's Whitehall.
For the BBC's senior sound supervisor, Tim Davies, there were a number of important considerations since the crew would be working in arduous conditions with limited electricity supply. High on his list were reducing freight costs and equipment reliability.
As the hub for his signal chain, Davies chose a FiberPlex LightViper, a lightweight fibre optic digital audio snake system supplied by UK pro audio supplier, Kelsey Acoustics. The LightViper was configured as a 32 x 8 system, enabling it to handle all the live and FX mic feeds, sends and returns.
Davies explained, "We needed an easy system to operate and wanted to save on rigging and man-power, not to mention truck space and reduce the amount of multicores we used."
However, the BBC Outside Broadcasts did use multicores for signal distribution from the LightViper system. Based in the farm's tractor shed at the top of a hill, the crew set up a communications system with San Carlos Military Cemetery which was located 600 feet away. From there they ran the conventional multicore audio snakes to the various points where the FX mics were situated.
"There were enormous advantages in using the LightViper fibre system; with the mic amps being close to the mics there was no danger of capacitance or loss of phantom power," Davies observed.
"We had 16 mics coming up from the cemetery and we returned an IEM feed to the MD of the Royal Marine Band - with a click track - so he could play in time."
Davies's crew were also taking a feed from London to the PA system, as the production team cut between pictures of San Carlos Military Cemetery in the Falklands to London footage from the Horseguards, mixing in stereo as the main memorial went out live on the UK's BBC Two television station.
(Jim Evans)
